MINA SMITH, WRITER & CREATOR

Writing isn't about taking classes from others, knowing terms, or having a Master's degree in English. It's a lot simpler than that.

Given the flaws in America's student loan lending system, it probably won't shock any of you that I was hesitant to go to college after high school. Student debt and student loans follow their own rules; here in America, they can follow you through bankruptcy and follow their own, barbaric ways of calculating interest. The thought scared 17 year old me, trying to pick a college. I knew my parents would pay for the first few years, but I was never a good student. How much would this end up costing me in the end (Spoiler alert: $22,000 when all is said an done)?

"Go to school anyway," my mom would say. 1990s prosperity had promised me a good job, so school seemed like the thing to do, even if it would be expensive. So it wasn't so big a risk was it? "Go to school and learn to write."

But I knew how to write. I didn't need a degree to prove it; I had high school awards, published pieces, and piles of notebooks that proved I could write. I wanted to go to college for something I didn't know how to do, then take writing classes on the side. Writing was too much of a passion to make it a job.

My degree is in Visual Communications and Graphic Design.

I don't regret my decision to steer clear of stuffy, writer's conglomerates. I didn't want a job in journalism or rewriting entries in dusty encyclopedias that no one would ever read. A writing degree would get me a stuffy job, almost guaranteed. So instead, I majored and worked in Art for ten years, in college and out of it. I wrote on the side. It was a passion, not a job.

There are so many places to learn, grow, and experience online that a degree is no longer necessary. Grabbing up freelance jobs for little pay for a year will stand in for any experience a degree would give you. College never taught me the most important things I needed to know to build a writing career anyway: work ethic. Freelance writing and editing isn't for the lazy or the weak-willed. A giant work ethic is required.

But everything else can be learned.

Read what you want to write. Apply to jobs on freelancer sites willing to hire newbies to build a resume and samples. Take a free or cheap online course from Khan University, edx, or Udemy to learn more about grammar and sentence structure. Then you have to write and write and write and write and write. Find a group that will help to read and criticize your work (properly). Learn what you can from their suggestions, then write more. Write every day. Make a real effort to improve not just your writing, but your speed too.

Writing is not an easy job. There are long hours and nights where you'll just never get enough sleep, but it provides a freedom that makes it worth it. And you don't need that expensive Master's Degree in creative writing. Most famous authors don't have them either. But with a lot of elbow grease, hours of practice, probably some tears, and tons of reading, you can be a writer without a $200,000 piece of paper that claims you are.

All stories and articles, etc here are written and copyright me unless otherwise stated. All photos are either mine, and copyrighted, or they are from FreeImages.com, a free stock image site. Visit them and support them, for they are awesome.